Michael Hochella

Biography

Michael F. Hochella, Jr. is an Earth scientist concentrating in the area of nano-bio-geo-environmental science on local, regional, and global levels. He is a Laboratory Fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech. He received his B.S. and M.S. from Virginia Tech in 1975 and 1977, respectively, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1981. He has been a professor, first at Stanford, and then at Virginia Tech, for a total of 28 years. He began a joint position with Virginia Tech and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in January, 2016. He has won many awards and honors (see below). He is a former President of both the Geochemical Society and the Mineralogical Society of America, and has served on high-level advisory committees at both NSF and DOE. He is the founder of the Virginia Tech Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, and the Virginia Tech National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure funded by the National Science Foundation.

Research Interests

Elucidating the roles that nanoscience/nanotechnology and mineral surface geochemistry/ biogeochemistry play in major aspects of the earth sciences, including especially environmental issues and biogeochemical cycling of the elements from local to global levels.

Mineral – microbe interactions from both geochemical and biochemical perspectives, applications to nutrients and toxins in the environment and their mobility.

Characterizing aqueous partitioning reactions at oxide and silicate surfaces; understanding interactions between mineral surfaces and species in solution with applications to aqueous system transport.